1. Field of the Invention
The field of art to which this invention pertains are machines for harvesting crops.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Representative pertinent prior U.S. Pat. Nos. known are: 3,830,048; 3,705,482; 3,587,216; 3,581,484; 3,301,331; 3,286,774; 2,903,839.
While the prior art has provided harvesting apparatuses it has not provided apparatuses that provide a discriminating action between the fruit and non-mature fruit but rather has provided principally apparatuses and processes for harvesting substantially all of the separable fruit on a vine or plant or have severed the fruit in such a manner as to not permit further growth of the fruit which at the time of harvesting is not yet mature. Such apparatus have not provided for a discriminating action between those fruits of a plant which are adequately mature to be properly picked and those fruit which are not in a sufficiently mature state to justify removal and, additionally, to provide for subsequent action on the same plant while growing in the field so that the fruit which were initially insufficiently mature for proper picking could be subsequently harvested following a growth which was not interfered with by the initial harvesting action.